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Busy Being Free: A Lifelong Romantic is Seduced by Solitude

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It is a memoir that magnificently captures decades’ worth of self-reflection around relationships, love, sex and forging a path back to one’s own identity when life takes unexpected turns. It took away from the real life situations she was describing rather than add anything to them and this grated on me at times. I will start by saying that this memoir is witty and raw and for the most part feels honestly and beautifully written. In the age of social media, where most people try to paint a perfect picture of their (in reality) flawed lives, I find it really refreshing when someone is brutally honest about their thoughts and feelings. Not the sort of book I would normally pick to listen to on here (middle aged divorced man with interests in sport and comedy) but after reading a review in the paper decided to give it a go.

When, after a life guided by romantic obsession, you decide to turn your back not only on marriage, but all romantic and sexual attachments? Still, I really loved reading Emma’s honest, messy, beautiful thoughts on motherhood, aging, sex and more. I did like her descriptions of the women in her life, and that some bits were very honest and emotional, with real pockets of insight (just annoying that they were always shortly followed by something shallow or vapid). She does not attempt to extrapolate universal meanings or turn her hard-won insights into lessons for other women in similar situations, as many such books often do.

For a memoir that is meant to show the freedom she gained by being alone, I don’t understand why it was essentially just a list of every single interaction she’s ever had with a man, most of which are romanticised. Sexual confidence is one thing, and admirable, but reviewing your whole life in terms of how disruptively irresistible you've been just feels really vain, not to mention limited in terms of what insight it can bring. Her writing hums with life, honesty and intelligence and underneath the romance and red carpets is loneliness and vulnerability.

This amount includes seller specified domestic postage charges as well as applicable international postage, dispatch, and other fees. When I was a teenager, one man who – and I use my words very carefully here – had sex with me is now dead, and I know him to have been a very bad man, despite what the obituaries said. For someone whose career has started in journalism, I didn’t ask anybody anywhere any of the most basic questions. A beautiful, unputdownable memoir about love and heartbreak, sex and celibacy, growing up and starting again.Bad Wolf chief executive, Jane Tranter, said: “Emma is one of the boldest, brightest voices of today’s generation. When you swap a Hollywood marriage and a LA mansion with waterside views, for a little attic flat shared only with your daughter, beneath the star-filled sky of deepest North London? It opens in London – where Forrest has moved to in the wake of her divorce from her Australian actor husband – when another mother visits her new flat and asks, “how did this happen to you?

Beautiful' Nigella Lawson'I adored it' Dolly Alderton'Wonderful' Lisa Taddeo'Intoxicating' Abi MorganWhat happens when your story doesn't end the way you thought it would?Her insistence on comparing details in her present life with musings on her previous sexual encounters often jars. Part of the in-built narrative in her leaving him and moving from LA is the suggestion that she will now be financially less well off. Early in her new London life, another mother looks around her tiny flat and asks, “How did this happen to you? I took comfort in many of the things she revealed she processed post divorce and her exploration of shame and disappointment.

Refreshing to read about a women in her 40s who is still living and not just surviving with a life based entirely around other’s needs. By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. To describe a memoir as solipsistic may seem redundant, but Busy Being Free is solipsistic in the best way: that is to say, Forrest is hyper-aware that she is telling her own story. A story about marriage and its life beyond divorce, but also about how we define ourselves through our relationships and the physical and emotional transformation that comes with maturity and middle age. And her ex-husband was straight up abusive at points but those behaviors are sort of described as just personality quirks.About the Author: Born in London, Emma Forrest began her writing career as a teenage columnist on the Sunday Times, going on to have columns in The Guardian, the Independent and Elle.

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